Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Welcome to the Big Syringe

TORONTO - Instead of erecting a world class casino and hotel lets build a shoot up club for heroin addicts instead.

It sounds like something Toronto would do.

“Toronto and Ottawa would both benefit from the creation of supervised injection facilities,” said a news release for the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment (TOSCA) project promoting the idea of so called safe mainlining on the taxpayer’s dime.

A great benefit -- for drug fiends and social workers. The jury is out on how the taxpayer’s benefit.

Would it end property crime, thefts and break ins?

Or would those chasing the dragon take their free fix and then be on the craving prowl for illegal follow up highs anyway?

“These are important questions,” said Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday. “With this idea are you really helping them?”

Interesting how there is no study on why a law-abiding Ontario grandmother like Jackie Wylie is not covered for her rare form of cancer but there is all sorts of people excited about enabling selfish heroin abusers. In denying her a special $42,000 method of chemo therapy Wylie was told in a Ministry of Health correspondence that “the value-for-money for the treatment of this form of leukemia was unclear.”

Clearly she should have been heroin addict instead. Perhaps there would be more interest in keeping her alive?

Meanwhile Holyday warns like in Field of Dreams, if you build this crazy party centre, you just know they will come.

“And from everywhere,” he said. “We give them free food, shelter and now free drugs? It may be a lifestyle people across the country would take to take us up on.”

Toronto’s new slogan: Free drugs! Get high on us!

Spread the word nation wide. Move over Big Smoke. It may become known as the Big Syringe instead.

Forget drawing in wealthy tourists, Toronto can draw in druggies.

If there is over the top demand, maybe they can put free heroin addiction clinics across the province in the soon to be vacant Ontario horse racing tracks and have the 60,OOO displaced workers mop up the blood oozing from veins.
As for Toronto, maybe they could place their legal drug den at an empty Ontario Place? Or how about at earmarked for closing Riverdale Farms?

The heck of with regular, law-abiding and taxpaying families and their children.

It’s all about the junkies.

How about free beer clinics? Or free chicken wings for those with deep fried poultry addictions?

Of course there is nothing flippant about drug abuse and there’s also nothing wrong with thinking out of the box, as well as having a discussion of ideas to combat the scourge.

But the idea that politicians use police as tax collectors by targeting drivers in a blitz for talking on a cellphone, while entertaining going easier on the loser drug addicts is a tough pill to jam down the throats of those following the rules.

There’s no question heroin addiction is a problem and it’s in the public’s interest to deal with addicts. But is the answer enabling addicts by sponsoring legal, state-run smack delivery houses? Or is the answer proper treatment programs inside schools, correctional institutions, hospitals and on the street? Could their be a discussion of forced interventions where a person either goes to rehab or jail?

How about life in prison for drug dealers instead of a slap on the wrist?

There is no easy answer. But creating hedonism for lazy heroin addicts to enjoy the pleasures of their failures at the expense of the people who play it straight seems bizarre.

“Using multiple sources of data, we projected that supervised injection facilities would prevent HIV and hepatitis C infections and result in meaningful health benefits for people who use drugs in Toronto and Ottawa,” said University of Toronto researcher Dr. Carol Strike.

Abstinence would also prevent those risks too.

Still, as well-meaning Ward 14 Councillor Gord Perks told reporters Wednesday, there’s no harm in politicians looking at all the data to find a better way of combating the narcotics problem.

But they should place the first free injection centre next to his home.